Blogging or Backstabbing: What Best Reflects the Average Internship?
With the job market still reeling from the recession, unpaid internships have fast become seen as the crucial foot-in-the-door for young professionals and recent graduates.
In his speech to the Labour Party Conference on September 29, Gordon Brown announced plans to create up to 10,000 skilled but unpaid internships.
The image that we're being sold is that such placements are mutually beneficial to employers and interns alike. The former gains someone to temporarily do a job for free thus lightening the company payroll, while the latter gets the chance to bolster their general employability for future employment opportunities.
At the same time (apparently by coincidence), E4 has been airing US reality TV show "Running in Heels". Labelled as a cross between "The Devil Wears Prada" and "The Apprentice", the show follows three young interns viciously vying for supremacy at magazine Marie Claire's US office in New York.
The high level of public interest towards internships naturally prompts the obvious question: what really goes on during the weeks and months of the average work placement? Are interns just glamorised skivvies brought in to do the menial tasks paid employees would rather avoid? How many "workies" simply get put out-of-harm's behind a pile of photocopying for two-weeks? Above all, do placements really breed in interns a dog-eat-dog culture of ruthless, self-interest of the like seen in "Running in Heels"?
Oliver Sidwell, a co-founder of online internship site RateMyPlacement ,insists that many of the popular stereotypes and negative preconceptions about interns are unfounded: "Work experience in general is thoroughly beneficial for both parties. There's always a minority who are either ignored or 'exploited', however comments by students in poorly rated reviews on RateMyPlacement do state they wish they had spoken up or asked for more work. If a student isn't having a great time I'd recommend they do speak up."
It's also worth remembering that internships are essentially two-way interviews -- as a student you are evaluating whether it's worth applying there after graduating. Sidwell recommends that students fully immerse themselves in all aspects of their internship to ensure they get a proper feel of what it's like to work there.
My own experience work placements have always tended to place more emphasis on meetings and blogging rather than backstabbing. Generally speaking, there's no reason why an internship can't open up new possibilities or even be that first step on the career ladder.
(Photo gcoldironjr2003, CC2.0)